News Briefs

7/19/2011, Tammuz 17, 5771

France to Support 2 States, 1 People?

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has indicated that he may not only support the creation of a Palestinian Authority state, but do so without simultaneously recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. Recognizing Israel as Jewish would “present unique problems” because of Israel's non-Jewish minority, he said.

Juppe did not suggest any problem in recognizing the PA state as “Palestinian.” PA leaders have insisted that the hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria be forced to leave the area when a PA state is created, leaving their potential state without the issue of an ethnic minority.

The PA has also insisted that millions of foreign citizens descended from Arabs who fled pre-state Israel be allowed to “return,” making Israel a de facto Arab state.